


Predators to be Preyed Upon

by Overthinkerwrites



Category: Tales of Berseria, Tales of Series
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 05:32:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10938021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Overthinkerwrites/pseuds/Overthinkerwrites
Summary: The prisoners of Titania have little idea what resides with them. Especially what is in the basement.





	Predators to be Preyed Upon

The lack of light is nothing new to Ren. 

Ever since the daemonblight took his humanity from him, he had to adjust to seeing even less light than before. On account he used to be a brigand that would often accost and rob travelers on the outskirts of Midgand’s kingdom in the lower light hours of the day. 

Though, given it was either starving or robbing, he was certainly not surprised that his luck would run out. He expected to be killed on the spot, being a demon and all. Granted, being ‘Ursus’ had its benefits, increased size for intimidating his victims, increased strength to tear through weapons and armor more easily. Though, tearing his former gang apart limb from limb was certainly a downside and he had operated alone since.

When two of the Abbey’s exorcists had finally caught him with magical glowing chains, he figured they would skin him alive for his crimes, but to his surprise, he was simply knocked out and dragged away. When he finally came to, he was in a prison. But not just any prison, the one that thieves, misfits, and more of their ilk would speak about in hushed tones before he had changed. 

Titania. 

One could count the number of windows in the place on one hand because the need to ensure that the prisoners there no longer deserved to see the sun, so decreed the Abbey. 

It was where you went there to do more than just die, oh no, the Abbey brought you there to suffer and waste away to nothing. 

And, to his surprise, it wasn’t just daemons like himself there. Political dissidents, common crooks, and even run of the mill laymen were there simply because they had ran afoul of their interactions with the Abbey in the first place. 

Such as his cellmate, Thomas. 

Poor Tom was a carpenter. Sure, they weren’t meant for violence, but when he had refused to pay exorbitant amounts of gald for the Abbey’s vaunted ‘protection’, he was thoroughly trounced and sent here after trying to fight. 

Ren had been here for a year and a half, Robert had been here for four months. While the former had accepted his fate and spent most of his day brooding, Robert made a habit of pacing in their cell as he slowly went stir crazy. 

“For the Gods’ sake, Tom! Sit down!”

The smaller man shook his head and just kept pacing as he held his biceps to fail and keep the chill out. “No, no, no… they’re going to send me down there… just like the other ones… just like the other ones…”

Ren sighed. Time passed slowly in Titania. And considering they could not tell whether it was day or night anymore, the inmates had to come up with another system to compensate. Jarl, a Felis in the cell across the way, used the regular patrols as a means of knowing how much time had passed. 

Eric, a Sus in the cell next to them, just waited for the meal rations that the exorcists and guards didn’t eat themselves. Weak prisoners were easier to control, after all. 

Ren, however, had another, and it was far more unsettling than most. And it sadly correlated with Tom’s raving. 

Every now and then, the exorcists, and it was always exorcists, would drag someone to a grate at the end of the hall, open it up and toss some poor rube down into it. 

They never came out. 

Furthermore, the sounds coming out of that last cell, that everyone called ‘the Maw’, were even more unnerving than anything he or any other daemon could produce. 

There was someone… or something down there that the guards kept secure. 

Its cries were distorted. Unnatural. While Ren was certainly in no position to judge, the thing that was down there was no doubt in a league of its own. Something beyond then. And while Ren certainly didn’t consider himself capable of feeling anything beyond what his eyes, ears, and nose could discern, there was something about those roars that made him understand Tom a bit better. 

It was hungry. 

It was angry. 

And it was certainly not idle like the rest of them.

At least once a cycle, he could hear the magical barriers inside the Maw activate and subsequent roars of rage and anguish at the same time. Whatever it was, the locks and keys on that one were far stronger than the ones on the rest of their cells. 

“No!” everyone in the block turned to see four exorcists dragging a large Varanus down the hallway, no doubt to feed it to the Maw. 

“No!” it roared again before freeing an arm to push one of the two exorcists behind him to the side and break for the door, but not before more golden chains of light retrained it once more and dragged it, kicking and screaming to the silent stares of all the other prisoners. 

Despite the daemon’s struggling, the exorcists were able to shove it into the hole as the chains vanished and they closed the grate again. All four of them circled the opening and watched what could have been the worst way someone could die.

The thing that lived in the Maw roared. The daemon they had tossed in screamed in terror. 

Everyone in the cellblock heard the struggle. 

Then, bones snapped. 

Flesh torn. 

And then, silence. 

The exorcists, their face covered by masks, did little to betray the anxiety they all felt as they walked back to the exit. 

“I can’t get used to that… no matter how many times I see it,” one whispered to another, which didn’t escape Ren’s notice. 

“You’re not supposed to. It’s what it’s there for.”

Ren turned to see Tom on his knees, his hands on his ears and tears streaming down his face. “Make it stop… make it stop.”

He sighed and wondered if, or when, any of them would be next. 

*

Ren woke up one day to find Tom gone. 

“They put him in the Maw,” the Sus said. 

It confirmed what Ren had believed them all to be. 

They were the animals, ready to be slaughtered for whatever it was that was in the Maw. 

Fear was not something he entertained often, but now was a definite exception that became the rule. 

*

“Out!” the guard roared, stirring Ren from his sleep. 

Before he could get his bearings, golden chains encircled his body and he was dragged off of his bench and onto the floor. Try as he might to struggle, the four exorcists pulled him, his large size not withstanding, to the opening. 

His eyes widened and his breath increased as he renewed his attempts to free himself. Without ceremony, without comment, they pulled him into the hole and the chains vanished as he tumbled into darkness. 

Yet, something broke he fall as he tumbled to the side. 

He shook his head and got to his feet, he didn’t want to know what was here. Sadly, he was going to find out as his foot tapped something solid. He squinted his eyes and they went wide again when he saw it was a bone. Sitting next to another one… and another one… and that sat next to a skull with half of its face gone. No, bitten off. He looked up and with what little light there was, found himself surrounded by piles upon piles of bones. 

The stench of blood and ichor made breathing difficult as he looked every which way for an escape, but knew there was none. 

With a snarl on his face, he decided that if he was to go down, he’d go down fighting, like he always did. 

From the shadows, something smaller him collided with his back forced him over one of the piles before he rolled back to his feet. 

He growled angrily. He was not going to be mocked in his last moments.

A stirring to his right caught he eye and he charged, taking a loose jawbone from the floor and tossing it in front of him. 

It was deflected away and before Ren could get his open attack in, he too was casually batted aside and against the wall. 

He grunted and tried to get the cobwebs out of his eyes as he saw a lone figure under the singular opening of the ceiling. 

It was a girl. How old she was, it didn’t matter. 

Judging by the rags she wore, she was here a long time. However, she was far from malnourished and it didn’t take much for him to figure out she was the one who had eaten everything and everyone tossed in there. 

It seemed preposterous at first, but then he saw her eyes. A poisonous gold, shimmering in the dark. Ren knew those kinds of eyes. Someone had betrayed her. And whatever happened, ripped her heart out and made it turn black as her voluminous hair, leaving nothing but hate and rage. For a brief instant, he understood that whatever fool did this to her, the Empyreans spare them, because this woman would not. 

He didn’t get any time to speak as her face began to distort. Black and red consumed her form and she hunched over, like a Canis, but her eyes shone brightly so it practically blinded him. 

He tried to block the light out of his eyes, but then, what he could only assume had been her, bit into his hand, and through the bone. 

He screamed as he tried to use his free hand to strike back. 

It was blocked by a much larger hand, and he opened his eyes to see what could only have been a distorted creature, in the shape of a humanoid wolf, but far more frightening. 

“FEEEEEEED!” she snarled before opening her maw once more.

Larger this time. 

Before Ren could process what had happened, she bit into him. 

And felt nothing more.

**Author's Note:**

> I was a tad confused seeing all the daemons, referred to as a singular name, despite clearly having differences between them. 
> 
> So, I figured what better way to show differences than to use the Genus of the animal that was used for their form. 
> 
> Consider this a brief bestiary guide for the kinds of daemons that one sees in Tales of Berseria:
> 
> Boar- Sus
> 
> Cat- Filus
> 
> Lizard- Varanus
> 
> Bear- Ursus
> 
> Wolf- Canis
> 
> Bird- Pytilla
> 
> And there you go. By all means, go ahead and make use of it if you like. Just be sure to let the readers of your stories know what the deal is. :P


End file.
